1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to gas lasers and more particularly to pulsed lasers having high stability, medium power, closed cycle or continuous gas feed operation, and capable of high pulse repetition rates.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Many configurations of gas lasers have been developed over the past twenty years, but each of these differs in a number of material respects from the structure and method disclosed here. A gas-efficient laser capable of operation at high pulse repetition rates is described in Review of Scientific Instruments 53(4) 1982 in an article entitled "High-repetition rate, recirculating hydrogen fluoride/deuterium fluoride laser" by R. I. Rudko, Z. Drozdowicz, and S. Linhares. In that laser the plasma chamber is housed in an aluminum cylinder. One of the high-voltage electrodes, the anode, is mounted on a plastic cylinder positioned within the plasma chamber and having its longitudinal axis offset from the longitudinal axis of the outer shell. The cathode is postioned opposite the anode and is connected to the aluminum outer shell. The anode and cathode are positioned at the narrowest part of the annular passageway between the two cylinders. One or more fans circulate the gas in the laser around the annular path. Because of the physical configuration, the highest gas velocity occurs in the region between the cathode and anode. A steady flow of fresh gas is maintained through the plasma chamber.